


when we were young

by mayafriar



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Anne regrets a lot of things, F/M, Gilbert is soft, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, Nostalgia, they are really in love but anne is just really scared
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-21
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-02-05 00:16:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12782745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayafriar/pseuds/mayafriar
Summary: Anne shakes her head at that. “I was cold to you, unforgiving. It’s one of my biggest regrets.”He is smiling, looking down at her. She didn’t notice how close they were standing before, but now she is acutely aware. “We really can never agree on anything, can we?”





	when we were young

He sits on her porch at Green Gables, the autumn leaves beginning to coat the ground with their colour. It makes him smile, thinking of her peering out her window when she wakes, still so eager to appreciate her surroundings so many years after he first met her. It is the end of the last summer of their youth, and he is desperate to see her for one last jaunt through Avonlea. 

The door creaks open behind him, and he turns his head quickly. “Anne!”

She appears in the door frame, dressed in one of her nicest dresses, parasol in her hand. Her long red hair is pinned back out of her face, and it makes him wistful for when he first met her, when she would string flowers through it, wild and free. “Oh, Gilbert! How long have you been waiting?”

“Not long.” He grins, standing to greet her. His frame towers over hers, and she seems abashed by his proximity to her. “Are you going somewhere?”

“I was, but it can wait awhile. I’m sure Diana will not mind if I am a little late.” She smiles at him almost nervously, and it sets his heart racing wildly. It has been a long while since the incident with the slate, since the moment he decided he would like nothing more than to know Anne Shirley-Cuthbert. 

He offers her his arm, and she hesitates a moment, tilting her head up and eying the gesture a second. She takes it whilst she looks away, anywhere but at him. Her gaze drifts across the trees that frame Avonlea, her thoughts moving to the beginnings of change around her. “I do think Autumn must be the nicest season of all.”

He chuckles to himself. “You have said that about each season in turn, Anne.”

She blushes furiously, indignant in the face of his amusement. “It is hardly my fault that nature blesses us with such beautiful things. I think it foolish not to appreciate it.”

“And I would be foolish to disagree with you.” He laughs now, a sound that fills her with warmth. 

“Gilbert!” She speaks with exasperation, but also fondness. He learnt long ago the toll of her moods. In fact, she counted herself quite lucky he’d been gracious enough to forgive her. Thinking of her behaviour in their youth made her anxious. “Did you call upon me for any purpose?”

He looks taken aback a moment, his cheeks flushed. “If you want to go to Diana, I can -“

She grimaces. “Gilbert, no, I am glad to have seen you, truly. I only meant to ask if you had something you wished to speak of.”

He shakes his head, smiling again. “Just yearned for the pleasure of your company. A walk seemed ideal seeing as there shouldn’t be any slates upon the way.”

She stopped walking then, dropping his arm from her grip.

It pains her to see the concern etched in his features. He has always been deeply empathetic, even when they were children, when she had treated him with such ice. “Anne? Is something the matter?”

She sighs, her hands curled tightly. “I have never truly apologised to you, Gilbert, for the way I treated you.”

Her eyes are fixed on the ground, and Gilbert places his hand on her arm. He speaks softly, earnestly. “I was teasing!” 

“You are a good person, a far better one than I.” At this she meets his eyes, the solemnity of her statement expressed through the fragility of her expression.

He furrows his eyebrows. “Surely you do not believe that, Anne?”

She is only silent in response, again seemingly intent upon avoiding his attention. She stares at her shoes, thinks of how Marilla used to admonish her about polishing them. 

“You were right to respond that way, Anne. I - I was foolish, and silly, trying to get a girl’s attention.” He seems almost bashful, as if he is admitting something. Her stomach is turning, churning wildly.

She shakes her head at that. “I was cold to you, unforgiving. It’s one of my biggest regrets.”

He is smiling, looking down at her. She didn’t notice how close they were standing before, but now she is acutely aware. “We really can never agree on anything, can we?” 

He raises his hand, tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear. She sucks in a breath. “I suppose we can’t.”

“I don’t dislike it.” 

At that, she smiles. She hasn’t smiled like this in a long time, not since Matthew passed. “Neither do I.”

He is serious again, and she can feel her heart beating faster and faster, strikes on a drum. “Anne -“

She breathes deeply, shuts her eyes tightly. “Gilbert, no.”

“What?” He tilts his head, unsure. He is so close, so unbearably close to her.

“Don’t say it.” The desperation in her own voice makes her queasy. Her head is spinning a little bit, and she thinks of Diana. Diana, who had told her that Gilbert had been mooning over her practically since the day they met. Diana, who swore that they would be together, Princess Cordelia and her prince.

“Do you even know what I intend to say?”

She nods tightly, then turns her back to him. “I do, and it…it frightens me.”

“Never thought I’d see the day Anne Shirley-Cuthbert was scared of anything.” He is placating her, she knows that much, teasing her. It isn’t enough to make this all feel less grave. She is scared. What he means to say will change everything, and they may lose each other. She doesn’t want to lose someone again, especially not Gilbert. 

The paddock they’ve stopped by has cattle roaming in it. She watches them, intent upon focusing on anything but this, but him. “I missed you, you know. I never told you how much I missed you back when -“

“I do love you Anne, more so every day. If you are afraid to hear it, I am sorry, but it does not make it any less true.”

She doesn’t turn around, still staring at the livestock. She shivers, and speaks softly. “I’m not sure what to say.”

“That is a first." She can hear the teasing in his voice. "The most favourable would be to say you love me too.”

She turns to him then, her eyes ablaze the way they are when she has one of her wild thoughts. She hardly knows what she's going to say herself when she speaks. “Do you remember that day, two summers ago, when it grew so hot and we went down to the river to swim? The sky was the most wondrous shade of blue, and it was so divinely beautiful. We sat and we swam and we read, and it was my most favourite day of that season.”

He nods, crestfallen. “I’m sorry to have kept you,” he turns to the side, offering his arm for her to put through hers. “I’ll walk you to Diana’s.” 

She pulls his arm, turning him towards her, and closes the space between them, fisting his loose sweater in her hand as she pulls them together. The kiss is sweet, his hands rising to rest upon her face. She is stretching upwards, he leaning downwards, the world seemingly stopping. It is him who pulls away, his face breaking into the widest of smiles. Her cheeks are glowing red, she is sure of it. His thumb smooths across her cheekbone. 

“I do. Love you, I mean.” She lets out a breathy laugh. “I wish I didn’t.” She crinkles her nose, the tension of earlier lifted. 

He laughs, and it sounds like sitting beside a fireplace with a good book, like the warmth of a loving hug. He smirks, clutching his chest dramatically. “What pain it is to love a mortal enemy.”

She smiles, linking her arm through his again. “Oh Gilbert, you have been my friend much longer than you were ever my enemy.” They start up on their way again, and it pains her to think how long they have detoured. She is sure Diana will guess that something has happened. 

“Is that so, Carrots?”

She glances at him menacingly. “Careful. I could always take it back.” 

She says, it but both know she wouldn’t. Gilbert Blythe had had her heart nearly as long as she’d had his.


End file.
